The present disclosure relates to identifying reusable components in an existing application, and to systems and methods for inserting a reusable component into a separate application, such as an application that is under development.
The development of software applications has seen many advances since the inception of computing. For example, low-level languages utilized constructs that were very closely related to the hardware of the computing system on which programs were executed. The creation of high-level programming languages provided tools that were more abstract than corresponding low-level programming languages and delivered greater portability across different platforms. High-level programming languages also permitted programmers to express operations in terms of variables, mathematical formulas, and Boolean expressions, rather than memory addresses and registers.
The development of object-oriented programming concepts and object-oriented languages, such as C++, further permitted programmers to modularize software applications. Object-oriented programming emphasizes concepts including encapsulation, inheritance, and modularity. Specific purpose modules can be created using object-oriented techniques, such that the modules receive input from and/or provide output to one or more other modules. Additionally, separate modules in a program can be configured to communicate by passing data organized in accordance with constructs, such as classes, subclasses, and objects. Once created, such specific purpose modules can be reused in other programs by copying the source code and associated definitions.
Java further expanded the principles of object-oriented programming by introducing the concept of a virtual machine, which makes it possible to execute an application in a platform-independent environment. Once configured, the virtual machine exists as an environment above the operating system and the computing platform in which an application executes. Because a virtual machine can operate on a variety of computing platforms, an application can be executed in the virtual machine on any of the supported platforms without requiring customization. Thus, an application can be generated for use with a virtual machine such that the application is reusable across a variety of separate computing platforms.
Programming tools, or integrated development environments (IDEs), still further enhanced the ability of programmers to efficiently develop software applications. A programming tool can be used to prototype, code, debug, and maintain one or more software applications. Further, IDEs often include a graphical programming environment, in which features can be at least partially configured through the use of graphical tools. IDEs also can include a palette of standard components, such as controls and displays, that can be inserted into an application without having to be independently developed. Additionally, IDEs provide the ability to analyze and modify an existing application for which the source code is available.